URI lockdown ends, no evidence of gunman on campus

Apr. 4, 2013
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by John Bacon, USA TODAY

by John Bacon, USA TODAY

A building at the University of Rhode Island was cleared room-by-room Thursday as state police investigated -- then dismissed -- reports of a man with a gun in or around Chafee Hall on the Kingston campus.

"The Kingston campus lockdown has ended," the school reported on its Facebook page. "State police have cleared Chafee Hall. The investigation has revealed that at no time was there a gun or an active shooter on the campus."

Classes already were canceled for the day, but the school announced that they would resume Friday. Transit buses that had been rerouted away from campus were resuming normal routes.

Earlier, the school had notified the campus community through its emergency alert system, the website, and e-mail to "Secure yourself indoors (not Chafee), stay there, and do not move about outside until further notice."

There were no reports of injuries or of shots fired, the website said. The university activated its Emergency Operations Center.

Chafee Hall houses several departments and some college administration offices.

Rhode Island State Police Superintendent Col. Steven O'Donnell had said earlier Thursday that a phone call was made from the URI campus reporting "an active shooter on campus." The school, South Kingstown police and state police responded, hel said.

"All of a sudden, we heard someone yell, 'You're a nice guy! You're a nice guy!' and sounding scared," said Tori Danielson, who was sitting in the back of a lecture hall in a class of more than 350 people in Chafee Hall. "Everybody started running and screaming out of the room, and our professor told us all to run. And everybody just ran out."

Danielson said she did not hear gunshots and did not see anyone get hurt.

"I didn't hear anybody say that there was a weapon, and I didn't see if there was. I was too far away," she said.